The NHS in England faces a total bill of £65bn for new hospitals built under the private finance initiative, it was reported today, with some trusts facing annual "mortgage" repayments that make up more than 10% of their turnover.

Figures obtained by the BBC show that 103 PFI schemes originally valued at £11.3bn when they were built will now cost the NHS £65.1bn over the lifetime of the schemes. Costs have escalated because of rising fees and additional costs such as maintenance, cleaning and catering. According to the data, the NHS currently pays back a total of £1.25bn each year, but this figure is expected to increase until 2030 when it will hit £2.3bn. The final payment will not be made until 2048.

Under PFI, private companies win contracts to build and maintain new hospitals and mental health units and the NHS pays off the "mortgage" over around 30 years.

Professor John Appleby, chief economist at the King's Fund health thinktank, said: "It is a bit like taking out a pretty big mortgage in the expectation your income is going to rise, but the NHS is facing a period where that is not going to happen."

Dr Mark Porter, of the British Medical Association, added: "Locking the NHS into long-term contracts with the private sector has made entire local health economies more vulnerable to changing conditions.

"Now the financial crisis has changed conditions beyond recognition, so trusts tied into PFI deals have even less freedom to make business decisions that protect services, making cuts and closures more likely."

Nigel Edwards, director of policy at the NHS Confederation, which represents trusts, told the BBC: "They were planned for a different world. I'm sure that in some cases people feel their hands are tied."

A Department for Health spokeswoman said it scrutinised all PFI schemes to make sure they were value for money when compared to an equivalent publicly funded scheme. "In many cases, repayments include not only the initial capital cost and financing charges, but also all ancillary services like cleaning, portering and building maintenance costs over the life of the contract," she added.

PFI schemes have proved controversial since they were first introduced by John Major's Conservative government in 1992. Labour complained that they were "privatisation by the back door" but said it was forced to continue them in office because of a shortage of NHS funding. The Chancellor, George Osborne, said in May that one of the roles of the Office for Budget Responsibility would be to examine the cost of outstanding PFI deals.